I was returned vs I returned

Both phrases are correct; however, they're used in different contexts. 'I was returned' is passive voice, indicating that someone or something caused you to be returned. 'I returned' is active voice, indicating you returned by your own action.

Explained by Miss E.
Editor at TextRanch

Last updated: March 26, 2025 • 5278 views

This phrase is correct but less common in everyday English. It is used in passive voice to indicate that someone or something caused the return.

"I was returned"

This phrase is used in passive voice to indicate that someone or something caused the return. It is less common in everyday English compared to 'I returned.'

Show examples from the web [+]

Nov 24, 2020 ... I was returned my game (by John). I'm torn on the correctness of this. Specifying the agent makes it look less right to me, though not outright ...
Update: I was returned to my owners. Have you seen me?? I was last seen in the Garden City area of Monroeville, PA.. My name is Blaze.. My family...
Looking for comfort, I was returned with “well then stop eating. That's why kids make fun of you.” I snapped. I stopped eating and fasted for 3 days.
I was logged into the system but when I tried to enter data I was returned to the login screen. Why? Q6. We have lost our PIN, can you send me another?
Jan 9, 2023 ... I took the sea four times, but I was returned three times until today, when you rescued us: “God bless you”. The three times I was trapped ...
Dec 20, 2022 ... “I was returned because I wanted to sleep with my human at night and I wasn't allowed to so I would cry outside the bedroom door,” Ellie's ...
Dec 19, 2022 ... In the cat's “voice,” the sheet says, “I was returned because I wanted to sleep with my human at night and I wasn't allowed to, ...
Dec 6, 2005 ... I was returned to my cell, where I would remain in solitary confinement, with no reading or writing materials, and without once being ...

Alternatives:

I was sent back
I was brought back

This phrase is correct and commonly used in everyday English. It is in active voice, indicating that the speaker returned by their own action.

"I returned"

This phrase is used in active voice to indicate that the speaker returned by their own action. It is commonly used in everyday English.

Show examples from the web [+]

When I returned from the dressing room, the sand had vanished.
I returned home at 10:00 P.M.
When I returned, I brought with me a gang of local labourers.
So when I returned, we built a home-made piledriver.
A week later, I returned and they had moved to Mobile.
I returned to New York Not yet.
I returned to my birth-right throne fýve years later.
So I returned here, my post, gone.
And when I returned, I took his property.
I returned from Sydney with a new admiration for Miss Adams.
I was foolish and I returned to this country as penance.
I returned to Ethiopia at the end of 1984.
If you recall, I returned with someone else.
When I returned from Paris, you told me that...
When I returned to the interrogation at Arthur Bernard's, everything had changed.
When I returned to the cabin, I...
And the next day, I returned to her cottage...
You see, I returned to New Orleans to investigate a threat posed against me.
Perhaps it was confiscated at the airport when I returned from Africa.
I returned home on a high.

Alternatives:

I came back
I went back
I came home
I went home

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I was returned vs I returned

"I was returned"

"I returned"

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